Good morning
It is my pleasure to join you for this important workshop which is part of an ongoing and strong commitment towards health professional education and training reform, in Viet Nam.
We are working to achieve better health for everyone, everywhere. It is a fundamental human right and mandate of the Government that everyone can obtain the quality health care service they need, when they need it, right in the heart of the community, without any financial hardship.
Competent health workforces such as medical doctors, dentists, nurses should be available for everyone, everywhere.
The numbers of health workforce training institutions and the number of health professionals graduating has risen significantly in Viet Nam in recent years. Now the question is competency of health workforce. Do they have sufficient competency to meet the rapidly changing needs of the Vietnamese people?
Most of them, if not all, should have that competency. Some of them may not. Here is the point where the reform is needed – all the practicing health workforce should meet the basic competencies required.
WHO with other partners has been supporting the health professional education and training system reform in Viet Nam. It requires a continuum of well-designed and functioning system from a competency-based undergraduate education and training system, a licensing system linked with mechanism to assess basic competency of health professionals, postgraduate education and training linked with certification system to produce small number of specialists and continuous health profession education and training system to maintain basic competency against changing healthcare need and demand.
The attendance of international partners – HAIVN, [World Bank], and JICA – who have been actively supporting the health professional education reform in Viet Nam, is welcomed.
Today and tomorrow, we will discuss how to assess the basic competency of newly graduated health professionals in Viet Nam. We will also discuss how to establish an item bank for sustainable and reliable health profession licensing examination. It will be an opportunity to share experiences, gain knowledge and plan the next steps in improving the quality and standardization of medical assessment and graduate examinations for health professionals.
I understand many of the universities and schools present here today have already made significant progress. The vision is to establish a nation-wide system with your ongoing contributions and hard work. This marks the start of an important stage in this aspect of the health profession education and training reform in Viet Nam.
I would extend my special welcome to Mr Lee Taegeun and experts from KHPLEI. You have rich experience in developing and running health professional examinations item banks as well as licensing examinations.
Since I witnessed the memorandum of understanding signing in Seoul in March 2019 between Ministry of Health, Viet Nam and KHPLEI, I am pleased to now witness the first collaborative activity between the two parties here in Hanoi today.
Thank you and welcome!
We do expect that our discussion today will have a legal basis in coming years by revising the current law on medical examination and treatment (LET). Building towards a national licensing examination and a national medical council through the necessary legislation aims to further strengthen the quality of Viet Nam’s health services and the international integration of its health workforce.
WHO is also keen to support the MOH in strengthening evidence-based decision-making for health workforce planning, including tracking the current workforce and those in training.
All of these reform actions will require significant work and coordination throughout all of the relevant stakeholders, as well as continued strong leadership from the Ministry of Health.
It will be a long journey and I believe today’s workshop will mark a bold step toward universal health coverage for everyone, everywhere – competent health workforce for everyone and everywhere.
Thank you